Sample and hold voltage reference source

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method are disclosed for providing a sample and hold voltage reference for non-volatile memory. According to one embodiment, the sample and hold voltage reference produces a reference voltage for a drain bias circuit of a memory cell.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to computer memory in general, and morespecifically to providing a sample and hold voltage reference fornon-volatile memory.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Non-volatile memory that can retain information when a power supply isswitched off, such as flash memory, is being used increasingly inelectronic devices for personal and commercial use, including cellulartelephones, digital cameras, embedded devices, and personal dataassistants. Flash memory is well suited for such uses because it iselectrically erasable and can be reprogrammed within normal circuitparameters, without requiring special programming devices operating athigher than normal voltage levels.

Technology has made it possible to produce flash memory that isincreasingly dense, resulting in greater and greater amounts of memorybeing available to electronic products. However, increasing the densityof memory results in increased power consumption. Further, in order toreduce the power consumption of these products, there has also been anattempt to operate flash memory at lower voltages and to utilize lowpower circuits, which presents additional challenges to keep up withperformance demand and cost restraints.

Flash memory is composed of flash cells that require a certain drainvoltage for proper operation. The function of a drain bias circuit is toprovide the necessary drain voltage to a flash cell. The load in a drainbias converts the current differential between the data flash cell andthe reference cell to a voltage differential at the data array senseinput node (SIN node) or reference array input node (RIN node) for thesense amplifier to sense. In 1:1 sensing operation, for each senseamplifier there is one drain bias circuit provided for the array sideand one provided for the reference side. When there is no sensingoperation, the drain bias circuit may be turned off and thus does notsink any current. Before sensing operations commence, it is necessary toturn the drain bias on, and thereby cause current flow. When turned on,the drain bias circuit begins charging the bitline or column, and inaddition begins to develop the voltage margin that the sensing amplifierwill be sensing. It is important to charge the bitline quickly in orderto achieve sufficiently fast sensing speed.

A typical drain biasing circuit may include a biasing feedback inverter.As the data size (the number of bits being read at one time) and densityof non-volatile memory are increased, a drain bias circuit with abiasing feedback inverter may pose difficulties because the biasingfeedback inverter sinks a relatively high amount of current. The currentfor each such circuit may be in the range of 100 to 200 microamps. Asmore flash memory cells are read simultaneously, the resulting powerconsumption also rises. In addition, the physical area occupied by sucha drain bias circuit needs to be relatively large for sufficient speedof operation.

The development of non-volatile memory has moved towards reading morememory cells simultaneously, thus requiring additional sensingamplifiers and drain bias circuits. As more drain bias circuits arerequired for sensing more memory cells, the physical space in asemiconductor device that is dedicated to this function also increases.For example, in x64 sensing, in which the values of 64 memory cells areread at a time, there are 128 drain bias circuits, resulting insignificant current drain and physical space requirements. As thephysical area for drain bias circuits increases, the parasiticcapacitance created generally will also increase, and this capacitancecreates power losses in the memory device.

In addition to non-volatile memory moving towards larger scale devices,the device supply voltages levels have also been reduced to save powerin operation and extend the life of power sources. As non-volatilememory moves to these lower supply voltages, it becomes more difficultto bring voltages up to necessary operating levels quickly so as not tosacrifice speed of memory operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The appended claims set forth the features of the invention withparticularity. The invention, together with its advantages, may be bestunderstood from the following detailed description taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a non-volatilememory sensing apparatus;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a typical drain bias circuit fornon-volatile memory including a biasing feedback inverter;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a static cascode drain bias circuit;

FIG. 4 illustrates a sample and hold reference generator;

FIG. 5 illustrates a drain bias current mirror and column load with asample and hold reference source;

FIG. 6 illustrates a drain bias kicker circuit; and

FIG. 7 contains a circuit diagram illustrating the connection of a drainbias circuit pair to the drain bias load, drain bias kicker, andreference generator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and apparatus are described for providing a sample and holdvoltage reference for non-volatile memory.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout some of these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form.

The present invention includes various steps, which will be describedbelow. The steps of the present invention may be performed by hardwarecomponents or may be embodied in machine-executable instructions, whichmay be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor orlogic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the steps.Alternatively, the steps may be performed by a combination of hardwareand software.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates the elements that areinvolved in sensing the contents of non-volatile memory under aparticular embodiment. Non-volatile memory device 100 includes a voltagereference 110. Voltage reference 110 is connected to drain bias 120,which maintains the necessary voltage levels for non-volatile memorycells. In this embodiment, the memory cells are included within memory130, which includes data array 140 and reference array 150. From drainbias 120, memory cell signals are transferred to pre-sense amplifier160, which provides data to post-sense amplifier latch 170. Pre-senseamplifier 160 and post-sense amplifier latch 170 are included in senseamplifier 190. Data is transferred from post-sense latch 170 to memorydevice output 180.

Static Reference Drain Bias

Previously, a drain bias circuit for flash memory typically was afeedback cascode drain bias utilizing an s′ cascode device. (An s′device is a low threshold voltage n-channel device.) A conventionalfeedback cascode drain bias circuit is shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, thegate of s′ cascode device 200 is controlled by biasing feedback inverter220. The feedback to the gate of s′ cascode device 200 is controlled bythe cell drain voltage from sense node or reference node, SEN/REN 230,if the drain reference is for the data array or the reference array,respectively. Connected to s′ cascode device 200 is drain bias load 210.In this example, between drain bias load 210 and s′ cascode device 200is either the sense input node or the reference input node, SIN/RIN 240,depending on whether the drain bias circuit is connected to a data arraycell or to a reference array cell. The other side of drain bias load 210is connected to source voltage V_(CC) 250.

In a particular embodiment, a drain bias circuit is as shown in FIG. 3.This novel device is referred to as a static cascode drain bias. Thevoltage reference source connected to the gate of the cascode device isa static voltage reference that does not employ a feedback inverter. Inthis embodiment, an n-channel cascode device 300 is used, instead of ans′ cascode device 200 as shown in FIG. 2. The use of an n-channel devicemay reduce the capacitance related to the reference signal because ann-channel device may be physically smaller than an s′ device. In FIG. 3,the gate of n-channel cascode device 300 is connected to drain biasreference 320. In one embodiment, the drain bias reference is the sampleand hold reference generator shown in FIG. 4 and described below. Oneterminal of n-channel cascode device 300 is connected to SEN/REN 330,which is the path to the memory cell drain, and the other terminal isconnected to load 310. Between n-channel cascode device 300 and load 310is either the sense input node or the reference input node, SIN/RIN 340,depending on whether the drain bias circuit is connected to a data arraycell or to a reference array cell. In one embodiment, load 310 is thedrain bias column load and current mirror shown in FIG. 5 and describedbelow. The other side of the load is connected to V_(CC), voltage source350. In one embodiment, sense input node or reference input node SIN/RIN340 is also connected to the drain bias kicker circuit illustrated inFIG. 6 and described below.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 provides for a decrease in current andpower consumption by the drain bias circuit. The embodiment does notrequire a feedback inverter and as a result the current drain associatedwith the drain bias function is reduced as compared with typicaldesigns. As the number of cells of a non-volatile memory device that areread simultaneously in a single operation is increased, the powersavings for the memory device become increasingly significant.

Further, the device utilizes an n-channel cascode device, thereby usinga device with a higher Beta value. In this embodiment, it is possible toutilize an n-channel cascode device that is smaller than an s′ cascodedevice, which reduces the physical area required on a memory device chipand reduces the resulting parasitic capacitance. The reduction incapacitance lowers the power requirements for the memory device. Then-channel device requires a higher gate voltage than is required for ans′ device, and such gate voltage is supplied by the drain bias voltagereference. The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 has small sense nodecapacitance, which allows for high performance operation with low powerconsumption.

Sample and Hold Reference Generator

For operation of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, a drain biasvoltage reference may be included. The drain bias shown in FIG. 2typically would include a reference voltage for the feedback biasing,but this does not require a special voltage, as the voltage source Vccmay be used as the reference source for such a circuit. However, for theembodiment shown in FIG. 3, a special drain bias circuit may be used toprovide the necessary gate voltage.

FIG. 4 illustrates a sample and hold reference generator under aparticular embodiment. In the circuit, the output of differentialamplifier 400 is connected to the gate of s′ device 410. The inputs todifferential amplifier 400 are flash pair reference 405 and one terminalof s′ device 410. The flash pair reference 405 is a relatively stablevoltage that differential amplifier 400 utilizes to regulate the sourceof s′ device 410. Resistor ratio 415 is trimmable to provide the desiredbit line voltage at node N1 470. Node N1 470 then connects to the drainof cascode device 425. Cascode device 425 is an n-channel device that ismatched to the n-channel cascode device in the drain bias circuit towhich the sample and hold reference generator is connected. In oneembodiment in which the reference source in FIG. 4 provides the voltagereference for the static reference drain bias circuit illustrated inFIG. 3, cascode device 425 is matched to n-channel cascode device 300.The source of cascode device 425 is connected to one terminal ofp-channel device 430. The gate of p-channel device 430 is connected toground 435. The second terminal of device 430 is connected to Y pumpvoltage 440. (The voltage pump device is not shown.) In one embodiment,the voltage pump device raises the voltage above the level of thevoltage source, which is useful when the source voltage for anon-volatile memory device is lowered to levels such as 1.8 volts. Thereference voltage obtained from the gate of cascode device 425 isconnected to one terminal of switching device 445. The second terminalof switching device 445 is connected to capacitor 450, which is thenconnected to ground 455. Switching device 445 is a switch that iscontrolled by a pulse source and that periodically closes the connectionbetween the gate of cascode device 425 and capacitor 450. Upon closingswitching device 445, capacitor 450 is charged to the reference voltage.In one embodiment, the reference voltage is provided by capacitor 450 toa drain bias circuit via path 460.

In a particular embodiment, the sample and hold reference generatorshown in FIG. 4 is the sole voltage reference for all read drain biascircuits in a non-volatile memory device. In a device in which a largenumber of memory cells are sensed simultaneously, the referencegenerator drives many transistors, and such transistors have a verylarge total capacitance. If the reference generator is powered up everytime a read is executed, there is a large power cost. In thisembodiment, the reference generator is powered up during the power upsequence for the memory device. Because of the sample and hold function,the reference circuit does not require power with every memory access,but rather only requires periodic refresh operation to charge capacitor450 to the required reference voltage.

The reference generator consumes very little power because it is thesole reference source for the device and because power operation is onlynecessary periodically. Instead, the circuit utilizes a largecapacitance and from time to time charges up the capacitance by openingup the switch. In addition, the circuit provides V_(t) (thresholdvoltage) compensation across wide ranges of temperature and varyingV_(CC) to make V_(t) largely independent of cascode characteristics.

Current Mirror and Column Load

In a certain embodiment, a circuit comprising a column load and acurrent mirror is used as a load for a non-volatile memory drain bias.In such a circuit, the column load acts as a resistance in the circuit,and is a standard device to reduce the area required for a resistance ina semiconductor device. The current mirror device provides a common modecurrent to the memory array. Sensing of flash memory is accomplishedthrough voltage sensing, which is a sensing of the current multipliedtimes the resistance (the IR drop). The circuit samples or mirrors outpart of the current. The common mode current is taken out of thereference and array side, and such action raises SIN/RIN levels andprovides a bigger V_(ds) (the voltage between drain and source) to thecascode device. The higher voltage assists in keeping the cascode devicein saturation at low V_(CC).

However, a drain bias load that includes a current mirror can be asource of significant power loss because of the reference source. FIG. 5illustrates an embodiment in which the reference is a sample and holdreference source that results in significant power savings. The loadillustrated in FIG. 5 includes an s′ column load device 500 with gateand one terminal of such device connected to voltage source V_(CC) 550.The second terminal of s′ column load device 500 is connected to eitherthe sense input node or reference input node, SIN/RIN 530, if the drainbias is for a memory cell in a data array or in a reference array,respectively. Such SIN/RIN node 530 is the input to the sense amplifierand is connected to the drain of an n-channel cascode device. (The senseamplifier and the n-channel cascode device are not shown in FIG. 5.)

In one embodiment, the n-channel cascode device connected at path 510 isdevice 300 shown in FIG. 3 and the sense amplifier is sense amplifier190 shown in FIG. 1. Also connected to RIN/SIN 530 is one terminal ofcurrent mirror device 520. The second terminal of current mirror device520 is attached to voltage source V_(CC) 550, while the gate isconnected to a path to sample and hold current mirror reference 540. Ina further embodiment, the sample and hold reference source is shown inFIG. 4. As described above, a sample and hold reference source resultsin a significant power savings over typical voltage references. Thedrain bias load thus results in lower power operating for the drain biascircuit.

Kicker for SIN/RIN Nodes

In one embodiment, a drain bias kicker circuit is connected to theSIN/RIN node of a drain bias circuit. A drain bias kicker circuit isshown in FIG. 6. Such a kicker circuit is connected to the drain bias onboth the data array and reference array sides. As illustrated in FIG. 6,one terminal of high performance transistor 670 is connected to theSIN/RIN node 640. According to one embodiment, high performancetransistor 670 is a p-channel device. The second terminal of highperformance transistor 670 is connected to voltage source V_(CC) 660,while the gate of high performance transistor 670 is connected to kickerenable 650 through inverter 695. The source of the kicker enable is notshown and may be a known pulse generating source. Also connected toSIN/RIN node 640 is n-channel cascode device 600 and drain bias load610.

In this embodiment, kicker enable 650 activates p-channel device 670through inverter 695 and provides a path from voltage source V_(CC) 660to SIN/RIN node 640. At the beginning of each memory access, the kickerpulse turns high performance transistor 670 on, thereby pulling SIN/RINnode 640 to the level of voltage source V_(CC) 660 and pulling theSEN/REN node to the level of the source voltage minus the voltage acrossthe n-channel cascode device, or V_(CC)−V_(tcas). When enabled, thekicker circuit acts as a temporary low resistance path to charge up thebit line. In one embodiment, kicker circuits pull both the SIN node andRIN node to V_(CC) before starting the sensing process, therebyequalizing the potential for the sense and reference sides. Bringing thesense and reference sides to the same potential then allows thedifferential voltage used for memory cell sensing to be developed morequickly, thus increasing operational speed.

In one embodiment, the SEN/REN node 630 is shorted to the matching senseor reference node for the corresponding data or reference drain biascircuit using s′ device 680. S′ device 680 is activated by kicker enable650, and activating the device has the effect of equalizing the senseand reference nodes during bit line charging. This assists inaccelerating sensing time when there is a mismatch between thecapacitance of the main data array and the capacitance of the minireference array in a memory device.

Drain Bias Pair Circuit

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment in which a drain bias circuit pair isshown together with embodiments of kicker circuits, current mirror andcolumn loads, and sample and hold voltage references.

In one embodiment, the gates of current mirrors 700 and 705 areconnected to sample and hold voltage reference 710. The gates of columnloads 715 and 720 are connected to filtered voltage source V_(CC) 725.The gates of high performance transistors 730 and 735 are connected tokicker enable 745 through inverter 740. N-channel cascode devices 750and 755 are connected to sample and hold voltage reference 760. SEN node770 and REN node 775 are equalized by s′ device 765, which is enabled bykicker enable 745. The current mirrors, column loads, p-channel devices,and n-channel cascode devices for the data array and reference arraysides are connected respectively to SIN node 780 and RIN node 785.

What is claimed is:
 1. A sample and hold voltage reference source for anon-volatile memory comprising: a differential amplifier, wherein inputsto said differential amplifier comprise a non-volatile memory referencevoltage and feedback from an output of a semiconductor device; asemiconductor cascode device, wherein a reference voltage is obtainedfrom the gate of said semiconductor cascode device; a charge storagedevice; and a switching device operable to allow said charge storagedevice to be charged with said reference voltage.
 2. The sample and holdvoltage reference source of claim 1, wherein said non-volatile memory isflash memory.
 3. The sample and hold voltage reference source of claim1, wherein said charge storage device is a capacitor.
 4. The sample andhold voltage reference source of claim 1, further comprising a voltagepump device to raise said reference voltage above the level of a supplyvoltage.
 5. The sample and hold voltage reference source of claim 1,wherein said reference voltage is used by a plurality of circuits. 6.The sample and hold voltage reference source of claim 1, wherein saidreference voltage is used by all drain bias circuits in a non-volatilememory device.
 7. A non-volatile memory device comprising: a pluralityof memory cells; a reference voltage circuit, wherein said referencevoltage circuit produces a reference voltage and provides said referencevoltage to a plurality of circuits in said non-volatile memory device; acharge storage device that stores said reference voltage; and aswitching device to apply said reference voltage to said charge storagedevice.
 8. The non-volatile memory device of claim 7, wherein saidnon-volatile memory device is a flash memory device.
 9. The non-volatilememory device of claim 7, wherein said charge storage device is acapacitor.
 10. The non-volatile memory device of claim 7, wherein saidreference voltage circuit operates periodically to produce saidreference voltage and said switching device operates periodically toapply said reference voltage to said charge storage device.
 11. Thenon-volatile memory device of claim 7, wherein said reference voltage isdeveloped when said non-volatile memory device is initialized.
 12. Thenon-volatile memory device of claim 7, further comprising a voltage pumpdevice operable to raise said reference voltage above the level of asupply voltage.
 13. The non-volatile memory device of claim 7, whereinsaid voltage reference is provided to a plurality of drain bias circuitsin said non-volatile memory device.
 14. The non-volatile memory deviceof claim 7, wherein said voltage reference is provided to a plurality ofloads for drain bias circuits in said non-volatile memory device.
 15. Amethod comprising: developing a reference voltage, developing saidreference voltage comprising: developing a differential voltage, whereindifferential voltage inputs comprise a memory cell voltage reference andfeedback from an output of a semiconductor device, providing saiddifferential voltage as an input to a gate of said semiconductor device,providing at least a part of a voltage output of said semiconductordevice to a cascode amplifier, and receiving said reference voltage froma gate of said cascode amplifier; periodically charging a charge storagedevice with said reference voltage; and providing said reference voltageto a component of a non-volatile memory device from said charge storagedevice.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein said cascode amplifier ismatched to a cascode amplifier in a referenced circuit.
 17. The methodof claim 1, wherein developing said reference voltage is independent ofthe threshold voltage of said cascode amplifier.
 18. The method of claim17, wherein said reference voltage is used by all drain bias circuits insaid non-volatile memory device.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein saidnon-volatile memory device is a flash memory device.
 20. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said reference voltage is developed when saidnon-volatile memory device is initialized.
 21. The method of claim 1,wherein developing said reference voltage occurs periodically.
 22. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said reference voltage is used by a pluralityof circuits.